Tuesday, January 6, 2015

My 2015 Goals


I haven't talked a ton about my goals during this past year, but I have been working on them. My word for the year was Balance, and I had goals focused in the following aspects of my life: Running,
Food, Finances, and Time Management.

This year I'm keeping Balance as my word and continuing to work on my goals from last year, either continuing what I didn't finish or expanding on what I started.

Running

My primary goal (and the one that I talked about the most this past year) was my running. I talked a little bit about my success in my December 5k Recap post, but here's a table with what I accomplished this year. Even though I didn't run a race in January, I ran races every other month and even managed to run two in a month on three occasions. In addition, my training is getting more consistent. I ended up running 14 races in 2014. Yay me!

Planned Races
Actual Races
January-      New Year's Day 5k
January:                              ---
February 4.5 miles Mud Run:  1:49:55        
March-        a 5k
March 5k:                               37:33  
April-          an 8k
April 5k Color Run:                37:40         
May-           a 5k
May 5k:                                  39:23          
June-           a 5k
June 5k:                                  38:11         
July-            a 10k
4th of July 5k:                        34:15

2nd July 5k:                           35:27
August-       4 miler
August 2 mile Mud run with Sunshine: ~40 min?      

August 8.5 miles 15k Trail Run:            2:06:58         
September half: Great Smoky Mtns Half  2:51:01   
October-      Halloween 5k
October 5k Trail:                  38:05       

Halloween 5k:                        35:26
November-  Turkey Trot 5k
Turkey Trot 5k:                     34:22         
December-   a 5k
December 5k:                          33:25          

Races I have planned for this year:
January- New Year's Day 5k
February- 8 mile run  {{new}}
April- half marathon  {{new}}
May- 5k {{new}}
--->  have a baby! <---
August- 4 mile fun run {walk}  {{new}}
September- 5k {{new}}

How I feel after the baby's born will dictate whether I add extra races in the last half of the year. I struggled with my energy levels after River was born, so I will be playing it by ear.

My big goal with running is starting my 40 by 40 goal. I turn 38 at the end of June, so the 4th of July 5k that I am planning on walking while 38 weeks pregnant will officially kick off the start of that particular goal. I'll have two years to complete 40 races of as many different types as I can manage.

Food

I've mentioned it several times throughout the year, but I definitely struggled with food this year. There's still a lot of foods that don't agree with me, which limits what I can eat and makes it hard to be properly fueled for exercise, nursing, and life. We did start GAPS after Halloween, but we weren't able to stick with it very long. My first trimester nausea makes it impossible to eat anything that smells at all and tends to take away my appetite as well.

We've been pretty good about eating a real food diet this year, and I've even got Mr M mostly on board with it.  We do still eat some processed foods, but we try to keep it to a minimum. Not purchasing processed foods really makes a difference in the budget- they're quite expensive.

Meal planning and menus help a lot with both our food budget and eating right. We've slacked off a bit on the meal planning lately, but we've also been mostly using what we have in the freezer and cupboards. I should be able to start cooking again soon (Mr M has had to take over that duty the last couple months) and when I do I'll be better able to plan out what we eat. It's very difficult to plan a menu right now when literally nothing sounds good. If Mr M makes dinner and puts it in front of me I can eat at least some of it, but don't ask me to plan or help make it :)

Tied into my running and food goals is the goal to stay active and healthy throughout this pregnancy so it can be as good, or even better, an experience as River's pregnancy.

Finances

We were on track to have our debts paid off by the end of the year, and then life happened. Life in the form of Mr M getting laid off back in September. We'd sold the trailer at the end of August and used part of the proceeds to pay off the truck, which would make it easier to sell. The rest of the money went into savings. When we sold the truck we were going to buy a cheaper, more fuel-efficient car and put the rest into savings. The leftover money from the trailer and truck were going to pay off the credit cards and the remainder of my student loan. Instead, that money went to pay the bills in the absence of a steady paycheck.

Not what we had intended to happen, but at least we had that money available when we needed it. Mr M is still looking for a job, but we have high hopes he'll start working soon. Once that happens we'll get back on track and get our debts paid off. I won't put a timeline on it at this point, but it will be as quick as we can manage.

We've tightened up our budget and I've gotten a lot more careful about what we spend money on (I have a post in the works about how we've handled the whole unemployment thing). Despite my compulsion to sign Sunshine up for all sorts of worth while classes, she only took two in the fall and may only take one in the winter (I'm still deciding on the second one). I still see the benefit of the classes she's not taking, but we can't do it all, all the time. She'll be able to take them at other time.

Time Management

I still have a ways to go on this, but I do feel like I'm getting better at not being too obsessive with projects. I've done some building, but I've done lots of other projects as well. I've sewed clothing, rearranged furniture, decluttered the house, taken an Irish whistle class, taught Sunshine, kept my Cub Scout pack running somewhat smoothly, taken care of River, been a wife to Mr M, trained for and run races, read books, blogged, the list goes on and on. Most of those things are on the schedule for this coming year as well, so I get to continue working on balancing my time between all my obligations.

I think I still spend too much time on the computer, and I'm working on putting it away for periods during the day. I perpetually feel like I don't have enough time to get things done, but if I just put my computer away I'd have more time available.

I have some projects I want to finish before the baby's born (painting the pieces I built before River was born, framing out and adding doors to the shelves I added at the foot of the basement stairs, and finishing the fireplace), but those will have to wait until we have some money available in the budget.

Have you made goals for the year? How did you do with last year's goals?

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